


Missing Time

by greekowl87



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, UST, daylight savings time, season 4, whim - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 04:07:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10235537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greekowl87/pseuds/greekowl87
Summary: Daylight Saving Time. Spring forward. Fall back.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Season 4ish with UST. Before the whole cancer arc thing.
> 
> A/N: I hate daylight savings time. But after working a fifteen-hour day, I just need to get this little ficlet out. Sorry for typos. No beta used.
> 
> Disclaimer: The usual. I own nothing. Merely borrowing for fun.

Mulder lay back on his worn leather couch, the well-worn leather creaking as his weary bones finally relaxed. He hated late night flights. He and Scully got back to Dulles shortly before one a.m. and being the gentleman he was, he drove her back to her apartment in Georgetown. He arrived at two a.m. but winced when he realized, that because of daylight savings time, two a.m. had become three a.m. A whole missing hour.

 

“ _I'm sorry I got you home so late,” he teased as they stood outside her apartment door. “I was aiming for two but look at the time.” He looked at his wristwatch dramatically. “It's three. Don't tell your mother.”_

 

_She smiled. An honest good for nothing smile. “How rebel of you, Mulder,” she replied teasingly._

 

_An awkward pause followed. And not for the first time, he took notice of her beauty and felt his heart stop. Goddamnit. When did he realize he loved her? After her abduction? Maybe earlier with their first case even?_

 

_She looked down at her shoes and brushed back a stray piece of errant red hair. She was smiling. “I'll see you tomorrow, hm?”_

 

“ _Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Come in late. Get some sleep. I'll cover for you in case Skinner asks.”_

 

_She smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “So, um, thanks for driving me home. I'll bring coffee, okay?”_

 

“ _Sounds good.”_

 

“ _Night, Mulder.”_

 

“ _Night, Scully.”_

 

His television had a marathon of _The Twilight Zone_ going in the early morning hours as he attempted to catch a few hours of sleep before going into work. He let his mind drift as he blankly heard the sound from the “The Monsters on Maple Street” for the hundredth time. Daylight savings time. A missing hour. What could he have done with a missing hour? Missing time...

 

So much. What had she invited him in? What would he have done?

 

He had been feeling surer of himself lately. He had been wanting for the past few months to voice his feelings to Scully but the perfect opportunity never presented itself nor did he find the confidence to do it. Missing time. What if that missing hour had been the moment? The most perfect moment he had been waiting for?

 

She would have invited him in. Maybe offered him coffee for his drive back to Alexandria or maybe something to eat. It had been a very long flight after all. They would talk. He closed his eyes. He could see themselves sitting at her oak kitchen table with an early morning coffee in hand. She would decline to eat because she had been watching her figure. They would chat about their most recent case and silly things, especially about how she had been finding a surplus of sunflower seed husks on her clothes lately. Somehow, the conversation would have grown silly. At that time, he supposed, it would have been 2:30. He would have gathered up the courage to finally kiss her. A real kiss. None of that chaste stuff. (They were grown adults after all).

 

The electricity.

 

He felt the sparks whenever he touched the small of her back or leaned in close to talk to her. With her, personal space did not exist. It was their space. Their space. One could not exist without the other. The kiss would be lighting the fuse to something more. There would have been nothing else like it. Then, after leaving each other breathless, they would make their way to her bedroom...

 

He awoke suddenly with a jolt. He did not remember falling asleep. Mulder forgot that he had placed an alarm clock in his living room since that is where he tended to sleep. He groaned and pressed his palms into his eyes trying to will his sleepiness away. Damn. When did he fall asleep? He hit the alarm absently and sighed. He could have done so much within the hour except it was daylight savings time. Spring forward. Lose an hour. Lose another chance. Sighing, he pushed himself up and towards his bathroom to get ready for the day.

 

At least he would get to see her smiling face later on that morning.

 

-End.


End file.
